Draconigena
by The Potless Stoner
Summary: A newly escaped Azula is handed the power to retake the world for her own, but even this power doesn't guaranty her freedom and instead turns her into the most powerful weapon of a world on the brink of yet another all out war.
1. History Leason

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No, I am not good at making up OC names, meh.

Also, to anyone who wants to see a chapter 3 of "light's out" go to the poll on my profile and answer please!

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

_In all societies, even those from before the age of benders, there have been stories of people, blessed and cursed with the gift of transformation; able to shift from their human shape to that of a chosen beast. Some believe this is how bending was passed from the animal fore-bearers to mankind. It was believed that the Gods bestowed upon these people totems, made from the hides of the beast whose form they would assume._

_ The people who were to become the air nomads were given drinking horns made from the hollow tips of sky bison horns. If one drank from one of these horns they were said to be able to assume the form of a sky bison, and were forever marked with the arrows so prominent on the bison. This is believed to be how the tradition of having mastery tattoos began._

_ To the people of the earth kingdom vests made from the hides of badge-moles. These vests imparted the strength of the badge-mole to those without the ability to shift, and could transform one into a badge-mole in times of great need, such as war or a natural disaster in which earth bending was necessary._

_ The people who lived in the area now known as the fire nation where given the greatest gift by far in that they were bestowed with belts made from dragon hide. To temper the immense power of these belts only few worthy people were given the power to use them. It is said that today such power is seen through being able to bend what is now commonly referred to as 'the demon flame' a fire of intense heat that is second in strength only to lightning. After killing dragons was made sport many people claimed to have such belts._

_ The people of water were not bestowed with any such gift, which is cause for speculation on the other three. Some historians believe it is due to the fact water benders learned their art from the moon and not from animals as the other benders did. This speculation then brings to question whether or not these shape shifters were the origins of human bending, so much so that some believe it was only extremely powerful benders that could use such gifts. _

_ Whatever the case, it is known, that as the age of bending progressed the art was lost (if it was there at all). It is of course forbidden now in all nations to kill or harm any of the 'original benders'-so called- and so it cannot be tested, even if the ability remains in today's blood._

_(__A History of Bending Pt.1: The Four Nations__ "Chapter 1: The First Benders" By Fericul Changeral)_

As a side note, each of the three stories was taken from a different form of "Shifter". Were-Sky Bison= similar story to the Sealkies, The were-badge moles= Berserks, and of course, the were-dragons=werewolves


	2. Gone

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On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

From his place outside the cage he watched the asylum's sole inhabitant. To anyone else the prisoner would have been a pitiful sight. The once proud conqueror now reduced to skin and bone barely held together in a bundle of inmate rags, chained to the brink of immobility. Molten gold gaze now bronzed dull, whether from the drugs they shoveled into her or her 'hallucinations' was unknown since her last words to anyone had been nearly a year before as the first cracks appeared in her sanity.

However his mind was elsewhere. His mind was far from the fallen war heroine turned psychopath. Coils of steel reptilian muscle beneath sapphire scales; dagger sharp fangs tearing down soldiers; powerful talons shedding enemy defenses with ease, invaded his thoughts instead. The vision made him shake with visible excitement. The unquestioned symbol of raw power in the fire nation (if not all four nations), the Crown Princess Azula (since even in her insanity she maintained her crown and reputation) at his command, sitting before him in white prison rags that had been died red at the sleeves, ankles and collar from the restrains that she constantly struggled against.

But if this didn't work… he shook the thought from his head and shifted the bag over his shoulder again. It would work. The girl before him was the only bender in centuries to bend demon's fire. It had to work. Cautiously he proceeded through the gated door that separated the room in half and approached the princess.

-D.-

Through the drug induced haze she was in the young princess registered a man before her a doctor or healer of some sort by the looks of it, as he spread out herbs around her. Her blurry golden gaze dropped to the herbs he was arranging. She watched his hands shake as he applied a lit match to the mix. The perfumed smell of the burning herbs became over powering after a short while and she gagged, the hazy smoke blocking out her vision even more.

"My apologies, princess, bear with it only a while longer," his voice seemed far away. Her body began to numb but before she lost all feeling she felt him begin to wrap something around her waist.

The world faded into smoke.

-D.-

Ty Lee never ran. It was a rule of thumb all who knew the acrobat learned. Ty Lee never ran anywhere. She cart wheeled or flipped or walked but NEVER ran. There was a grand total of one time, in her life, Ty Lee, had ever run. After being slapped, for doing a cartwheel in front of her father, she had run, all the way to the circus. It was due to this fact that her friends knew that Ty Lee never ran.

So when Zuko saw the acrobat not flipping, or cart wheeling, and not running, but sprinting towards him at full speed (which was amazingly fast due to the girl's strong legs) he knew something was horribly wrong. Both he and his guards had to all but leap out of the acrobat's way to avoid being trampled, and as she flew into him the girl grabbed his collar, for going the formalities of bowing.

"She's gone, Zuko! The whole place was destroyed!" the acrobat said through gasping breaths as palace guards pulled her away from the fire lord.

Zuko was slow to realize what she was referring to until he saw the full extent of her distress. Her labored breathing clearly came from over exertion, something surprising because of her conditioning. Sweat slicked her bangs to her cheeks and brow and beaded down her neck, and her face was as red as the guard's uniforms around her.

"She's gone… the asylum's destroyed!" she repeated, making her point clearer, before dropping to her knees and completely breaking down into tears.

It was like a slap to the face when she said this and his shell shocked response was, "Azula…"

A dumbfounded soldier regained his bearings faster than his lord and asked, "do you want to send a search party, m' lord?"

"No," Zuko managed, panic still in his chest, "send a message to the Avatar and his friends that my sister's gotten out. She's too dangerous for just a search party; she's probably the one behind all of this."

The tear filled glare from usually soft gray eyes, caught him off guard. Ty Lee's temper was just as unheard of as her running, "anyone would want to get out of there, but 'Zula knew better! She wouldn't have done this, and you'd know that if you actually went to visit her!"

It was true that the only one to visit Azula in the year since the war was Ty Lee. The doctor's assigned to her wrote their reports off of what she told them and even the guards refused to go near her cell. It was popular speculation that Ty Lee's ever constant news of progress was just the girl's over optimism. Zuko was sure that was the case even now.

"Send for the Avatar and friends no less."


	3. Enter Blue Dragon

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Please, please, please answer the poll on my profile!

On with the show!

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From his place on the out crop overlooking the ocean he could see the hulking metal forms of fire naval ships bringing earth nation and water tribe representatives to the island nation to plan the hunt for the newly freed princess. He grinned at the idea, they would search but they would not find her, not until long after it was too late. His eyes moved to the skies easily finding the avatar's sky bison flying high over the incoming ships. Far above the avatar another shape flew, far larger than the bison and far more powerful than any defenses staged with them.

-D.-

At the pier Zuko could see the battle ships he'd sent to retrieve the other nations' officials and above them he could see the familiar shape of Appa. He could feel the tension leave him slightly as he watched the ships grow closer. It had been a week since the asylum's destruction. The only place that seemed relatively untouched had been Azula's cell, the walls of which had been destroyed, but remained untouched by fire as the rest of the facility had been torched. This was his only indication that Azula was still alive.

Beside him he could see Ty Lee bouncing on her toes and waving in over enthusiasm at the ships, their arrival brightening her mood significantly. Since the princess's disappearance she had been incessant with her requests to find the girl. Her typical cheerful mood gone in place one of worry. The acrobat knew all too well that Azula's imprisonment had not sat well with other nations' officials, and that they would use such an incident as fuel for their fire. Zuko had promised that no matter who requested it he would refuse to take his sister's life, claiming that if his father was allowed to live, Azula, who was far less of a monster, deserved life as well. This had significantly improved the aura reader's mood, but didn't completely return it to normal. Seeing the ships and knowing her newly made friends were aboard one of them seemed to do the trick.

Her gray eyes moved to the skies, and she waved up at the small dots she could see on Appa's back, undoubtedly the gaang. Something above them caught her eye and stopped her enthusiastic welcome. At first she thought she'd imagined it, but as she stared up just above Appa she could see it more clearly, the beat of huge wings, the serpentine swing of a huge body, its pronged antlers were the only thing that had given it away, since they were bone white instead of blue like the rest of its body and so were obvious when it flew between clouds. A dragon, an enormous dragon, more than triple Appa's size, flew over the procession, cloaked by the sky and clouds.

"Zuko," she said, pulling at his sleeve, guards that had accompanied them hanging back so she was free to act as she would towards any of her friends, "Zuko, look! Above Appa there's a dragon!" she pointed up at the sapphire beast.

Zuko turned his gaze up and spotted the huge creature, seconds before it folded its wings and dove.

-D.-

The sudden soundless rush of air behind them surprised the passengers in Appa's saddle. All eyes went back to see the dragon dive, wings and legs tucked securely to its back and stomach. Shock slowed time as they watched the beast slam head first into one of the accompanying battle ships, cries of surprise and fear could barely be heard over the creak and groan of metal being shredded. Seconds later a second ship was tossed completely over, as the dragon took to the sky again.

"Aang!" Katara called, but before she could finish her sentence Aang had already turned Appa in the direction of the blue beast.

"What's going on?" Toph shouted, as they fly toward the beast.

They were forced to swerve as a projectile from one of the ships catapults came close to hitting them after being dodged by the monster before them, "We're being attacked by a dragon!" Katara yelled in answer as they closed in on the blue beast.

A gagging noise escaped the dragon's mouth followed by a stream of blue white lighting that crashed into the ocean, hitting just ahead of another ship and tossing it almost vertical. It dove at the up turned ship. Sokka toke Appa's reins while Aang rose, bringing his staff down sending a powerful blast of air at the beast. It barely grazes the monster but it was none the less annoyed and turned its aggression towards the nuisance.

Its huge golden eyes turned on Appa. Sokka narrowly managed to steer the bison out of the stream of cobalt flames that left the beast's mouth.

The dragon was now at their tail, and Aang quickly made to derail it from catching them. Using his staff he sent a powerful gust at the beast, only for the dragon to pull back, his attack deflecting harmlessly off the blue steel of its chest scales. Huge jaws opened, blue flames dancing in the back of its throat. Just in time Sokka steered Appa down in a steep drop, the jet of flames narrowly missing Aang as he flattened out against the thick fur of Appa's tail.

The dragon roared its outrage before diving after them as they dove closer to the water. As the beast closed in on them again Katara dropped into a stance, throwing a huge wave into the monster's head knocking it to the side.

From the pier where they watched unable to aid their friends, Ty Lee and Zuko both saw the glint of the dragon's eyes flash at them.

Without slowing the beast turned, huge wings beating as it barreled towards its new targets on the shore.

For a moment both the fire lord and acrobat were frozen as they saw the beast flying their way. The contortionist saw herself reflected in huge golden pools, and barely registered Zuko's cry, "Ty Lee!" the acrobat regained her wits and jumped back seconds before cerulean flames engulfed the wooden port, landing unsteadily on the sand and twisting her ankle. On hands and knees she braced herself for the next attack that would more than likely prove fatal but it never came.

Gray eyes moved to see the dragon had landed in the sand and was watching her. Huge amber eyes were faded, almost drugged in their appearance, but as they watched her a note of recognition was evident.

"Ty Lee!" Aang called as Appa neared the shore. The dragon turned toward the bison, and snarled a warning before taking off, charging the other animal. Its antlers locked with Appa's horns as it rose; throwing Sokka from his place. The huge reptile went into a death roll, dragging the bison with it, throwing the rest of Appa's passengers to the sea and sand. Before quickly dislodging itself, and using its tail to slam the bison into the water below them before he could gain his bearings.

Its wings beat again, causing huge waves and sand clouds, before it dissolved into the sky and was gone.

Everything was still for a long moment before the full weight of attack sank in and Zuko called out to soldiers that were still stunned at what had happened, "go retrieve medics and ships and aid those at sea!"

Ty Lee made her way to her feet shakily, the ankle she'd twisted earlier refusing to bare her weight forcing her to limp to the deep dent left from where Toph had landed in the sand after being thrown from Appa's saddle, "you okay?" she asked kneeling beside the hole the earth bender had caused.

"Never better," Toph replied, gruff sarcasm in her voice as she pushed herself into a sitting up position, and patting the ground beside her making the bottom of the hole rise and fill in so she was level beside the acrobat, "I get tossed off giant bison all the time, no worries."

Ty Lee smiled slightly; Toph was one of the first in the gaang to warm up to her. The acrobat stood, planning on helping the earth bender to her feet, only to collapse from the pain shooting through ankle.

"Looks like you got it pretty bad yerself," Toph said, standing and brushing herself off, ignoring her own sore muscles, and helping the acrobat to her feet, "yer skills are getting' rusty there, dragon tamer."

Ty Lee blushed smiling somewhat ruefully at the nick name Toph had given her, it stemmed from the earth bender's less than affectionate nick name for Azula 'the dragon' (typically accompanied by a few other choice words) and the fact that the acrobat was only person able to approach the fire bender without being greeted with hostility, "it wasn't the dragon, I twisted my ankle when I was getting off the pier," she explained, leaning heavily on the earth bender, to in an effort to keep off her injured foot.

The sound of a bison bellowing turned their attention to Appa who had just made it onto the shore. Toph kicked the ground in time to send a sand wall up between them and the bison as he shook off, shielding them from the mini-tsunami. Zuko, who had made his way toward them, was not so lucky.

"What's up, Sparky? Miss us?" Toph said, grinning and punching the young fire lord's shoulder. The fire bender gave a weak smile, looking out at the quickly moving rescue ships that had been sent to retrieve those who had been in the ship wreck.

Aang and Katara soon joined them. Aang bending the water off of himself as he made his way onto the shore, while Katara rung out her hair. The water bender looked worriedly over her shoulder towards the rescue ships, before her gaze to the others around her, and frowning slightly, "where's Sokka?"

"Up here," came the weak reply. All eyes went to the trees that edged the beach. In one of the out skirting trees Sokka hung, a snapped branch in his thigh the only thing keeping him from a twenty foot drop.

Toph dug her heel into the ground sending a pillar of earth up beneath the water tribe boy, as Aang sent a blade of air up cutting the branch from the tree and dropping him to the pillar that was a foot below him, which carefully lowered the wounded warrior to their level as they rushed to help him. Katara immediately went to work healing her brother, while Aang asked the unsettling question that plagued everyone's minds, "what was that about?"


	4. Smoke and Mirrors

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So yeh, I realized in the last chapter, I never Azula's perspective (not that she was there exactly but I left her out none the less) So, I figure giving her a chapter all her own would make up for it.

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

"You were great once," she heard him say. It was the man, whom she'd come to find was not a healer. His name was Nothus, and he was a rebel leader. He'd taken her to one of his camps shortly after she'd blacked out from the herbs, but she couldn't tell where they were, close to the ocean she knew but only by the sound. Her eyes felt too heavy to open but she knew that the camp had many people, and was much warmer than her cell had been.

"You were a thing of beauty once," even without being able to see his face she knew he was smirking the conceit and reverence in his voice enough to indicate it, "you didn't bend fire. You _were_ fire. Cruel and ruthless and powerful," he drifted off.

Despite the praise, the princess couldn't bring herself to smirk or answer him. Drown, somewhere, sedated by the over whelming scent of burning herbs was anger at the man who spoke to her. The asylum hadn't exactly been home and yes she'd hated it there, but the asylum was nothing compared to the smoke that now kept her blind and sedated and she knew the reverence in his voice was not from respect or admiration, it was the same conceited tone her father had used when speaking of the comet. Similar reverence could be heard on the tongue of a soldier speaking of his weapons, some form of pride but not of the object itself more so of what it could do… What she could do.

A new voice interrupted her thoughts for the briefest of moments and distracted the man from continuing his monologue, "M' lord, scouts have spotted them. They'll be at the main land in a short time."

She didn't hear him approach her but she did feel the hand grabbing her chin and forcing her head to tilt up, so her blind eye's can meet his, "it's time you became the fire once more."

-D.-

She tries desperately to cling to any semblance of order around her but she can't find any. The Around her smell of burning flesh and blood hung, dulled and diluted by the distinct scent of sea salt mix with the heavy stench of brunt herbs. Screams, splashing and the tooth grinding sound of metal being shredded assaulted her ears. The world flew by in an incoherent mess of sound and scent and feeling.

The nauseating confusion diapered as quickly as it came, dissolving into sudden calmness that washed over her, cooling adrenalin heated blood. The stench of sea salt and carnage was dissolved into a softer scent that had clung to her as much as its owner had. Muscles unloosened as if deceivingly soft hands had just run over them, soothing blood and bone and mind. For once in the year since the war she felt clear. Free of drugs, free of herbs, free of hallucinations.

The split second of clarity ended quickly. Shattered by a voice, though whose it was she couldn't tell. Anger rose at the person who had interrupted her precious lucidity, and the world was gone again in a rush.

-D.-

Nothus was ranting. She'd done something wrong, though she wasn't sure what. The clarity of regained sanity-shocked into her by her escape and the elusive scent that she couldn't place- was fogged by the ever burning herbs. As his words blended into incoherent drowning, her thoughts turned to the herbs that she knew surrounded her. If only they'd stop burning she'd be able to think straight, their scent and the constant heat of the fires burning them was uncomfortable. All she wanted was for the fires to stop.

Welcome cool air hit her as the thought ran through her head, and a semi-contented sigh paced her lips with an unintentional breath of flames.

"Stop that, slave," he snarled, she could tell by his voice he was caught off guard by whatever she had done. Her nostrils burned as he forced what must have been a brand of one of the herbs into her face, forcing her to inhale the awful aroma again. And soon the heat was back, her will drown with her anger.

"Up the dosages, she's burning them off faster than expected," she heard him call to one of his lackeys.

The smoke thickened and her senses began failing, but his last words were not lost on her, "it would appear we have another enemy, worse than the false lord and the avatar."


	5. War Room Rumble

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Ok, so… hmm yeh… Nothing new to say… I'm graduating the police academy! ... That's about it…

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

The tension filling the air of the war room was suffocating. Around her the acrobat could hear shouts from all sides; earth kingdom officials' lobbying for the missing princess's blood mixing with resentful outrage from fire nation generals who were loyal to both past and present crowns.

"Quiet! Please," Zuko finally called out over the angry representatives around him. All glares met the fire lord's eyes, but it was clear Zuko wanted the ordeal to be over with and would have none of the political battle cries being thrown through his meeting room, "what we need now is to deal with the matter at hand-."

"The matter at hand, Fire Lord," one of the earth nobles interrupted, "is that the Fire Nation has called us here in a failed assassination attempted. Nearly half the earth nation delegates was killed or wounded by an attack on us by a fire nation beast unseen in battle for decades!" his glare shifted to a fire nation general who spoke up in defense of his lord.

"No one in the fire nation has seen a dragon in years, this morning was just as devastating to us as it was too you. Many of our own were taken down on those ships with no provocation behind it. As you said, no one has seen a dragon in decades, and even so dragons are uncontrollable creatures," the fire general replied, looking aged beyond his years from weariness.

The earth kingdom noble snarled back, "that is unacceptable! If you cannot control what is within your borders, then perhaps the earth nation has no business here."

"Dragons are uncontrollable! Telling someone to tame a dragon is like taming death, impossible! If we were to go to the earth kingdom and be attacked by some rouge animal, you would say the same would you not? A tragedy yes, but an accident none the less," the general replied.

"If the beast were unnoticeable then, yes, but this is a dragon we are discussing! A beast large enough to through your naval ships like play things. How did you miss such a being off your own shores?"

The general was seething now, but before he could shout some half snarled response, a calmer man, one far older then the soldier beside him spoke, "you clearly didn't see it before it attacked."

The young general spoke again after the calmer man finished, "that's right, and besides it wasn't even near the shore until it attacked, and may I remind you that it attacked the fire lord himself!"

"Yes, the fire lord was attacked today and conveniently escaped without a scratch," the angry delegate turned his glare on Zuko, "tell me then fire lord, as you've been quiet this evening, tell me what do you think of this attack."

Zuko locked eyes with the earth kingdom man, anger dancing behind golden irises, "the incident today was a tragedy on both sides. I do not know why a dragon would make such an attack, but it was not an attack we planned, it acted of its own free will."

"It was acting on divine providence, we are sure of it," one of the fire sages put in, "Agni is clearly displeased."

"Bah, why would the gods send such a beast as a dragon to deliver a message of displeasure? Shirley their precious Avatar is a much more suitable messenger," the earth kingdom man said waving off the statement.

"You are an old fool," the calmer fire general spoke, in a half laugh, "they did not say the gods were unhappy, only Agni, the Sun God if you will be so wise to remember. Dragons are Agni's children, what better messengers to send to show his displeasure with the new crown," the general leveled a glare at Zuko.

"No matter! Good Earth Nation men died today, I want retribution," as if to punctuate his sentence the earth man slammed his fist to the table before him.

"Why? It was the gods' will; there is no payment for that!"

Again the discussion disintegrated into a shouting match between both sides.

"ENOUGH!" the room went silent and all eyes turned to were the water tribe delegates sat, their numbers equally as decreased as those of the earth nation. Hakoda sat with a stern look that one might use for scolding children, and waited until the room cooled from its previous state, "while we can all agree something needs to be done about this morning's incident it is not what we were called here for."

"One deranged little girl is the least of our worries," the earth kingdom man snarled.

Ty Lee chewed her lip as Katara spoke up, "we're not even sure if she's still alive, Zuko."

Zuko put his finger tips together before him, his elbows on his knees, looking contemplative, "while it is questionable if she lives, I believe Azula is still out there. We have reason to suspect she may be in contact with a rebel group that has been growing quickly across all four nations. They've doubled in size over the past week alone."

"This rebel group is of no concern of the earth nations. If you cannot handle your own internal conflicts it is your country's problem," an earth kingdom official spoke up, "and perhaps you would do better to put someone who understands these things in power."

The calmer fire nation general spoke up, "while I agree there are more suitable candidates for the crown," he gave Zuko a pointed look, "you are missing the severity of this problem, this group is growing across ALL nations, not just the fire nation, and if my suspicions are confirmed they might already be more powerful than once believed."

"What might your suspicions be then?" an earth kingdom general asked, bristling and the thin veiled warning.

The fire general was cut off by another soldier running into the room, he saluted quickly before speaking, "the items retrieved from the abandon rebel camp have just arrived."

"Can't you see we're in the middle of something?" the general snarled back.

"This can't wait, sir, the medics have only identified two plants, they cannot identify any of the others," two other guards entered carrying a large crate from which brunt plants could be seen, mixed with a few that had managed to remain intact.

Ty Lee's eyes widened as she looked at the mix, but before she could speak the earth general began shouting again, "do you plan on getting high in the middle of a meeting, general?"

"I have no idea what you are talking about," the other man replied.

"That plant there is a common relaxant among lower classes," the earth general howled.

The first guard that had rushed in nodded, "that and the monkeyhog's weed were the only two we were able to identify."

The man closest to the guards holding the crates moved away slightly, "monkeyhog's weed causes blindness, what the hell are rebel's doing with it?"

"I think I might know, "Ty Lee spoke weakly, eyeing the mix of plants, "that's the same mix we use at the circus to subdue un broken animals to make them more obedient," she stood and walked to the crate looking closer at it, "but this is an excessive amount even for the most unruly animals. There's enough here to…" she drifted off, a dawning look crossing her face, "there's enough here to sedate a dragon…"


	6. Fireworks and Fighting

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I'm sorry about the wait on this chapter.

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

A full week passed, then another and yet another still, before anyone realized it the summer solstice was almost upon them. The holiday's festivities lifted the spirits of everyone with a proper ounce of fire nation blood in them, except those in the fire lord's court. What should have been a simple matter of uniting their fronts against a common enemy had turned into a political brawl. It was as if fear and hatred had taken on physical forms as a disappeared Azula and a close to extinct reptile, as if both sat in the wings pulling strings and stirring anger between representatives.

Earth nation officials demanded control of all troops on their soil, while fire nation general's refused to give their command up. One of the less productive meetings ending with, "no fire nation soldier worth his salt would follow you earth kingdom pigs!" The fire nation general had promptly left and never returned to the meetings.

Needles to say do to the frequency of such comments and the fights that ensued shortly after few of the court members realized the holiday fast approaching. That was until the day of the solstice when Ty Lee, the only one to have remembered, came bouncing in to the war room arms full of flowers.

As she made her way around the table laying six flowers at each seat one of the fire generals frowned, "what are you doing, m' lady?"

"Don't you remember? It's the Summer Solstice today," she hummed, her braid swishing more than usual with the added weight of fire lilies entwined in the brown locks.

"The solstice?" almost everyone was looking at the acrobat as if she had grown a second head. As the full weight dawned on them all members of the gaang were shouting at their fire lord pleas for the day off, sounding like a mob of over grown children.

"A holiday would do us all some good," Hakoda put in before any of the earth representatives had time to protest.

-D.-

The break had the desired effect. While not as enjoyable as Solstices of the past, the celebration served to loosen otherwise tight held grudges. Other countries representatives cheered as loud as any fire nation citizen. As night fell and the fireworks and feasting began.

From the huge open front court yard, all the ambassadors watched as explosions lit up the night's sky.

Had the beast roared seconds before its outcry and flames would have been masked by the fireworks.

-D.-

The dragon's landing shook the palace causing weaker pillars to crumble and bow to the beast. Cerulean flames, that the monster had so carelessly thrown as it landed caught and clung to trees and roof tiles. Ty Lee was barely able to dodge collapsing roofing and unstable support beams as she raced toward the dragon. Servants and guards alike rushed around her, but she was deaf to cries of panic and warnings that chased stone and ash through the air.

When she reached the open court yard where the beast had landed the fight was already in progress. Mai had been through into one of the still barely standing pillars, and wasn't moving, the acrobat prayed it was because she was only unconscious. The others were being tossed like rag dolls by the angry beast. As she made her way through the freshly torn battle ground Zuko was thrown past her, tossed into the air by one of the dragon's huge wings. The beast's head turned toward them blue flames racing out of its mouth.

Ty Lee saw herself in the amber pools and felt the intense heat of flames nearing her. Then the flames seemed to flow in reverse, a sound a kin to a whirlpool or a tornado drown out other noises as the flames were pulled back to their owner. The beast's neck reared back as it swallowed its flames. It throat bulged as its flames receded, for a moment it's mouth hung open smoke rising from it as the monster exhaled.

Drug induced rage outlined her in golden eyes. The dragon's neck arched, looking like a huge snake about to strike. Its jaws snapped together in a snarl, before opening again with an earth shaking roar. That had the acrobat covering her ears and cringing, the sound shaking though her, making her fall to her knees. She could see the dragon rush her and tensed closing her eyes as she did so. She didn't feel huge jaws closing around her or flames, instead she felt the wind rush past her, briefly reminding her of standing to close to the Ba Sing Se monorails. Briefly she opened her eyes; all she saw was the shimmering blue, like looking at the open sea at night. Around her the rush of air drown out all other sounds, until the whip of the dragon's huge feathered tail slammed into her and threw her back.

She felt her head hit solid wall and the world went black.  
>-D.-<p>

He had been sitting back, comfortable in the knowledge that everyone in the fire nation palace would be slaughtered by his now controlled 'pet'. The grand finale would come soon, he knew, the palace would be burned to the ground without him so much as lifting a finger.

A grin crossed his face as he saw the midnight blue reptile rising above the huge compound, only to have it fade almost instantly as the beast flew instead towards him. While his orders had been for her to return as soon as her mission completed it was just as it had been at the ambush of the incoming ships. Fury rose in his throat leaving the bitter taste of ash and smoke as fire left him. Another mission failed; what should have been a flawless plan, now ruined by an incompetent dragon.

As the beast landed the ever burning fires flared, sending the heavy smoke of herbs flaring with it. The dragon gagged as smoke surrounded it, its own unintentional powers causing it to inhale more of the over whelming sedatives.

"You've failed again, over grown garden snake," he snarled.

The dragon's head swayed in response, the sedatives already burning once more in the beast's system, the monster before him collapsed into an exhausted slumber before he could voice more of his rage.

-D.-

The world spun around her again. Heat and color a sound blurring into a world painted by a child. The heavy scent of herbs still in her nose was the only constant though she was sure she'd left the rebel compound hours ago. The ground shifted beneath her, disappearing and reappearing in nauseating inconsistency. Then it hit her, harder than any hit she'd ever taken, the scent. Once more dulling the burn of herbs to a dull annoyance. Through blurry hazy that coated her vision she saw the color that she had so often disdained before but had secretly been more than a welcome sight to her. The blurred pink outline of the ever familiar girl stood before her terror in soft gray eyes, and she realized she was the cause of it.

Pain clung to her chest and the first thing she could think to do was leave, to get as far from this vision as possible. In the back of her head she begged it not to be a hallucination, but her body wouldn't allow her to stay and find out and she was gone as fast as she could away from the hazy image.

The instant she left the girl behind, if it had even been her in the first place the over powering scent of herbs returned, dragging her back to Nothus. As soon as she returned the fires around her bloomed, roaring and filling her senses with the perfumed stink of herbs.

The last thing she heard before drug induced darkness took over was, "you've failed…"


	7. A New Plan

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I apologies this chapter is short-ish compared to the others, or at least I think it is.

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …  
>_-<p>

_The heat around her was unbearable. All around her blue flames twisted and danced, circling her, trapping her. She watched with fear induced nausea pooling in her stomach as flames turned to flesh before her, shimmering scales replacing fire. Dancing cerulean sparks turning to living muscle. The heat remained as coils of blue steel scales wrapped around her in a possessive, deadly embrace. _

_ Then a voice, one that hadn't been heard for a full year since its owner's downfall echoed into her ears, "Ty Lee, what a fool you are to try and tame a dragon," Coils tightened to the point of almost being unbearable. The beast that held her shifted, and she saw her reflection in a huge golden iris, "but what a weak dragon I must be to have been so easily tamed."_

Ty Lee groaned as she woke. Her head was pounding and her body ached. Bleary gray eyes opened to bright light streaming through the window near her and she groaned again as the light hit her.

"Look who's back from the dead," despite the pain of moving the acrobat rolled over to see Toph leaned back in a chair beside her, "mornin', sleeping beauty."

She smiled slightly at the young earth bender before putting a hand to her fore head as her temples began to throb, "how long have I been down for?"

Toph smirked, "a month," when she felt the surprised jump in the acrobat's heart beat, the earth bender laughed and held up her hands, "joking. Maybe a few days or so, but that's most everyone," The creak and sudden glint of metal when the earth bender raised her hands made Ty Lee's stomach turn.

"Toph, your arm…" she stared. Even though she knew full well it wasn't true the young earth bender always seemed unbreakable. The smooth silver that glinted before her served as proof that wasn't so.

Toph grinned ruefully, "yeh, I learned the hard way to stay away from beasty's mouth," she ran her other hand over the smooth metal that had replaced a majority of her left arm, "damn good thing I can metal bend or this would really suck," as if to prove she was all right she flexed the metal fist.

An exhausted Katara made her way into the room, "Toph, I told you to rest that a little while longer."

"Yes, mom," Toph laughed, rotating her metal wrist just to irritate the water bender.

Katara pinched the bridge of her nose, only noticing Ty Lee had woken up when the acrobat tried to sit up and groaned with the effort, "Ty lee, don't!" the water bender rushed to her and helped her shifting pillows behind her back so they sat her up, "you shouldn't be moving too much," she scolded.

Ty Lee smiled at her concern, "I've taken harder hits and gotten up."

Katara snorted at her, "I doubt that. You're lucky your head didn't crack from impact."

The acrobat smiled weakly again in acknowledgement of what the healer had said before moving on to ask, "How are the others?

Toph was first to answer, "We're all up. You took the hardest hit."

Katara shook her head again, "I believe being the only one not to break, but LOSE an arm would count as the 'hardest hit'," she flicked the metal, making a soft pinging noise.

"Yeh, whatever Sugar Queen, point is everyone's fine," one of the blind girl's ears twitched, "Sunshine's coming this way."

"I will cut off the other one," Mai said as eyes turned to her in the door way. Her silver eyes met the stormy gray of Ty's and the acrobat saw concern and relief swim in the quicksilver pools; she masked it quickly, she sighed, "finally," before turning, ducking her head out the door way and calling, "Ty's up."

The remaining group filled into the room, Sokka leaning on a crutch, his leg still healing from the previous attack, Zuko's arm and chest were wrapped completely, Aang seemed to be the only one fully recovered.

Sokka grinned and walked to her, patting her shoulder in the rough friendly manner, "glad to see you're awake. You almost went the same way Toph did," he joked, tapping the earth bender.

Toph punched him the way she usually did, only slightly harder to make him wince, "watch it, your leg coulda gone the same way."

Katara sighed, it was clear she was not in the mood for joking, the bags under her eyes and the slight shaking of her hands leant proof to obvious exhaustion, "Sokka, you can't replace a missing head," she sighed.

Sokka, in a vain attempt to lighten the dark mood that was hanging in the room, "you don't know that. It's never been tried before."

Katara shot him an unimpressed look, "I don't think Ty wants to be the test dummy for that." Which Ty Lee weakly shook her head to in agreement.

Zuko spoke next, his tone equally as weary as Katara's, "Now that you're up, we can start preparing for the search."

Katara's protests were immediate, "none of us are ready to travel yet."

The acrobat was even more confused now, coupled with the pain in her head was even more discomforting, "search?"

Sokka stepped in while his sister and the fire lord began quietly arguing over the plans, "after the attack everyone kinda came together. We're going to mount an expedition find the dragon… and kill it."

-D.-

(Yeh so I was discussing this chapter with my friend/editor Ryan and I had to ask about Toph's arm, cause I didn't know how people would feel about that. His reaction, "awesome, now she can have a combustion man arm." 


	8. I Know You

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Yay! I was terrified I'd lose people with Toph's arm (or lack thereof) but most people seem to like it, so yay! A thank you to everyone who's been reviewing, I love you! And I love all of you have graced this fic with your attention. I'm officially on Summer Break, so feel free to heckle me if I start slacking on this fic.

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

Ty Lee had forgotten how much she enjoyed the outdoors. Even with the daunting task at hand she reveled in the freedom she had outside. The cooling air around her and the constant battle between the sun and the rain she could have lived without, but even with the ever undecided weather she was in higher spirits. The decision for the search had been made nearly two months prior, and the time was beginning to wear on everyone. Every time they closed in or thought they were close, they would only happen upon an evacuated camp, their prey already two steps ahead of them. The acrobat was the only one who had yet to lose hope, simply happy doing something other than arguing over politics which still happened from time to time at each of the bases where there were mixed soldiers.

Of course, Ty Lee being Ty Lee she made it her own self prescribed mission to spread her good mood to everyone else. For anyone else the job of moral lifter would have been a tiring task, but for Ty Lee the job was as simple as a one handed cart wheel, which she was currently performing to the cheers of her growing military crowd. As she spun -the world moving fast enough that anyone of lesser experience would have made themselves sick- she could see the blur of red and green uniforms surrounding her, reminding her of days in the circus when they traveled through the colonies and saw people from all the nations mixed in the crowds. She grinned and flipped through the air again, vaulting over the admiring crowd to begin anew on a new stage.

"That's enough! All of you back to your stations," of course there was the old saying, you can please all of the people some of the time or some of the people all the time, the earth nation general who'd happened upon her performance being one of the not so pleased as he approached her, men scurrying back to their positions, "M'lady I will remind you this is a military base not a circus, a bit of discipline would be appreciated."

"Yes sir, I'm sorry," she replied, bowing courteously though she wanted nothing more than to continue her performance, she also knew few of the earth generals with them had very high tolerance levels the one before her being the most lenient.

"Right then," it was clear in his face and the way his back stiffened just so that he was not expecting her to comply much less apologize. He turned stiffly and began walking away, until the boom of one of the harpoon loaded cannons caused him to jump almost out of his skin. He turned and glared at the men working the machine as did she, "What the hell was that?"

"Sorry, sir, I-uh-it was an accident, sir," one of the soldiers answered, snapping to a shaky salute.

The general's reply was drown out by a screeching pain filled roar.

-D.-

She'd been burned by her father once. Shot by her own back firing lightning. She'd even fallen from an unbroken komodo-rhino and broken a leg only for the beast to come back and almost trample her into the dust. This pain was like nothing she'd ever felt. It was like someone was trying to skin her. It took her a moment to realize the scream that drown out the noises around her was her own. For once in her time since being freed from the asylum she longed for the drug induced haze that was drifting in the outer edges of her mind now, dulled by her distance from camp.

Desperately she pulled away from the offending item so deeply lodged in her skin, only for it to pull her back. Just when she felt there could be no greater pain, in the world, a second stab of pain, this time to her other side, made her scream out again. Then she was falling.

-D.-

The earth shook as the huge cerulean beast hit the ground. Its leviathan like body twisting and trashing, succeeding only in entangling itself in the chains connected to the harpoons embedded in its wings. Cobalt scales darkened as blood poured from open wounds. Its jaws clamped on one of the offending spears and began to pull but the barbed tip held fast, and its efforts were forgotten in a cry of pain.

"We- we've done it!" the general yelled in surprise, as he watched the enormous beast twist and roar in pain.

Ty Lee felt her stomach turn at the sight. Perhaps it was her fire nation nationalism or her slightly air bender belief that all life is sacred, but whatever the cause the sight of the beast before her thrashing in pain tore at her from the inside out. Dull bronze eyes met her own and the dragon stopped, its huge body tangled with chains and still shaking with pain but no longer twisting in agony as it had been doing. It met her gaze even as she came running forward pushing through the soldiers who hung back terrified to go near what they had caught.

It growled when she came to close but didn't move when she reached it, her own nerves sky rocketing as she drew close. She put a shaky hand on its huge nose, part of her waiting for the pain of huge fangs sinking into her arm part of her knowing no such thing would happen. The beast laid still its eyes glossy but not dying. _I'm too strong_ its eyes told her _Too good to die because of this._ A weak smile crossed her mouth the golden stare drawing memories of an equally strong willed golden gaze to her mind, "you won't," she whispered, even as the beast's eyes closed she knew the suspicious half knowing gaze that lay there, and cause her breath to hitch as she saw it seconds before they closed completely.

_I know who you are._


	9. Fate of the Beast or A Dragon's Dream

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So, this fic is officially 2 reviews from having the most reviews of any of my fics. I'm going to put this out there, whoever puts up that 26th review and sets this one to number one in number of reviews I will write them a fic of their choosing.

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

"Ty Lee, step aside," Zuko's voice was grim as he tried to move the young acrobat.

"No, we can't kill it!" she shouted back pleadingly. She stood between the unconscious dragon and crowd of on looking soldiers, "Zuko, it's being drugged! You can see it in its eyes."

Sokka stepped up his expression as grim as Zuko's, "You and Toph have been the only ones to get that close and Toph lost an arm because of it."

Ty Lee looked pleadingly at the group before her, "But- but we can't…"

Some part of her resigned itself to the dragon's fate, until Aang stepped up and turned on the group, "she's right. We all know dragon's are close to extinct, if there's a possibility this one is being forced to do what it's done," he looked over his shoulder at her as he said this, "We have to help it."

"This beast has taken out some of the best men the four nations have seen, and you want to let it live, Avatar?" one of the earth generals asked incredulously.

Aang looked to the others before him, each with weary looks, none of them meting his eyes, "we'll give it 'til it wakes. If it tries to attack we'll kill it, if not, we let it live."

-D.-

_She could feel the hunger in her burning belly, gnashing behind her fangs, furious starving flames. What the fires hungered for, blood, body or soul, mind or heart she didn't know. She did, however, know the girl before her would give whatever was asked of her, if only to please the princess. _

_She knew it should have angered her that the disowned noble's daughter would think herself so high as to tame her with such a gentle hand. If she knew one thing it was that monsters like herself, with fangs and claws and flames could and would tear such a girl to pieces given the right motive, but when she heard the acrobat's voice whisper her name, any anger within her died, and the hunger was all too happy to consume her in its own will to feed on the aura reader's heart as is slipped past her tongue with each syllable of her name._

_ "Azula." _

She awoke with a low groan. Her body ached and she could feel the dull throb of pain in her skin, like taking a hit to an old bruise. As she took another breath and opened her eyes she realized she was no longer surrounded by the haze of smoke.

A contented sigh ran through her at the thought of being free of the infernal smoke, and she stretched lazily, enjoying the warmth of the sun rising on her back. It was then she felt muscles that shouldn't have been there stretching and realized the pain she'd felt was not in her shoulders or back but in the heavy wings that folded and unfolded with her waking. She'd woken in this form a number of times since her 'release' from the asylum. At first it had seemed surreal, then terrifying, and then it angered her that she was unable to awake as herself. Now, the form was only a mild irritant, no worse than the soreness creeping through her.

"I didn't think you'd wake up so soon," sleepy golden eyes met wide gray, the soreness of her body was instantly forgotten.

-D.-

The roar woke the rest of camp and soldiers where in a frenzy. Ty Lee rubbed the sleep from her eyes as she listened to the sounds of men yelling orders to one another, the creak of metal chains and the angry roar of the now awake dragon. The dragon was awake, the thought hit her and she leaped from her bed bolting outside to find the beast awake and fighting the bonds that had been placed on it in its slumber. Its teeth snapped and men backed away.

She moved closer as the men moved away, and saw Aang dodging the beast's jaws. She saw one of the dragon's talons raised as much as the chains around it would allow before slamming into the avatar's chest, throwing him into the air, "Aang!" she called, moving to catch him.

She caught him, or rather lessoned the impact of his fall, since her legs gave with the impact of his weight hitting her. She sat back in the dirt dazed, until she heard the beast growl.

-D.-

For a brief moment she remembered falling into the dark safe warmth of insanity. The ease and all consuming destruction that came with it was far easier to sustain than sanity. The rage she'd felt at simply seeing the young avatar was similar to that feeling. Letting her body control its reaction to what she felt rather than thinking of consequences. The beast's body had done just that, taken over the instant she'd felt her hate for the younger boy slip into her mind. It was easy to lose control, but terrifying, similar to how it felt to lightning bend, to have the power to destroy everything including herself.

And then all at once the anger disappeared, before her Ty Lee sat, having fallen trying to catch the avatar, her head bowed and body shaking. Part of her willed her new form to continue attacking; after all Ty Lee had betrayed her, this side whispered, telling her how good it would feel to crush the acrobat's bones in her teeth or perhaps incinerate the both of them and be done with it, unwillingly contradicting this side of her, memories rose, images of half remembered lucidity in her time in the asylum listening to Ty Lee whisper to her wishing but never expecting any response from her drugged, catatonic form. She let a growl rumble through her throat and the acrobat looked up at her, hesitant gray eyes meeting her own, making the whispering anger die like the last resilient sparks of a forest fire.

She let her body slump back to the ground watching the acrobat as she did so.

-D.-

The golden eyes never left her as she called for Katara to help Aang. She rolled the avatar over, glad to find the scratches he'd received were relatively shallow compared to what the huge talons could have done. Katara came quickly water skin uncorked already.

Out of the corner of her eye she saw a snarl playing on the beast's lips, exposing fangs longer then her arms. She gave the dragon an apologetic pleading look, begging it not to cause any more trouble. It looked at her and the snarl dropped, if such a beast could, it looked ashamed and annoyed. It snorted at her, smoke rising from its nostrils and it turned away, stretching like a cat before lying on its side to look over its wings.

"You see the beast has attacked the avatar, without your supposed drugs!" one of the earth generals shouted as he approached the scene.

Aang sat up, running a hand over his newly healed chest even as Katara scolded him for getting so close to 'that monster', "I surprised it, it's my fault," he quickly defended.

Ty Lee didn't bother listening to the continued arguing. Her eyes moved back to the cerulean beast. The dragon's golden eyes moved over its wings taking in the scar tissue that had begun to real seal the wounds it had received.

Its golden eyes moved to her and its lips drew back showing off its fangs in warning. She smiled up at the animal, "you haven't hurt me yet, I think I'll take my chances," she said, continuing to approach it.

-D.-

Her pride told her to separate the acrobat's hand from her arm when it touched her, in punishment for taking her warning so lightly, but for the life of her she couldn't bring herself to remove the hand that stroked her throat. Her sensitive ears where trained on the conversation that was deciding her fate, but the dull white noise of Ty Lee's voice as the acrobat spoke beside her, the familiar comfort of acrobat's voice pulled a content sigh from her and she rolled over giving the acrobat more access to the softer, sensitive scales of her throat.


	10. Lost and Found

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Alright so, I decide to do this for my dedicated reviewers out there. My top 3 reviewers are as follows: Rioshix, CheshireMonkey and DaPheonix. Since you all have stuck with me through this, you guys get the same offer as the 26th reviewer did: A story written on your request, literally I will write whatever you want. THANK YOU ALL FOR REVIEWING!

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …  
>_-<p>

It amazed him how simple missions (such as insuring a safe distance between them and their enemies) could be so utterly ruined by what he'd thought would be his ace in the hole. Absently he wondered if the avatar had ever done the same or if the combination of insanity and drugs had begun to waste away the princess's brain.

"The scouts have returned, m'lord," he waved off the messenger, with orders to send him the scouts. When he heard the return of boots he turned to face the soldiers he'd sent to retrieve the dragon, "I don't hear any roaring or snapping, I trust this means she's been sedated."

One of the scouts cleared his throat, "no, m'lord, the princess-err-dragon was shot down by the Fire Lord's soldiers."

"Shot down? What do you mean 'shot down', they can't have killed her so easily," not for the first time in his life did he feel as if Agni was playing some cruel trick on him.

The soldier shifted uncomfortably under the glare he was receiving, "not killed, m'lord, she is still alive, but they shot her wings through and she is recovering," he chewed at his tongue for a moment before adding, "she's burned off the sedatives, sir."

"Then take enough to sedate her and bring her back to camp," he growled.

"It's not-not that easy m'lord, she's at their camp now. A two day march from here, heavily guarded," he stepped away from the angry commander.

He ground his teeth. Yes, Agni was playing a cruel game with him.

"There is something else, m' lord," the second soldier, who had been silent until then began, his commander calmed only slightly to listen, "she's rather attached to a young girl, a Ty something I believe, sir."

-D.-

_Precious lucidity reached through the smoke to her for only a moment. Perhaps she wasn't completely lucid, but she could see and feel and hear, despite the unwillingness of her body to move and the blankness of her mind. She saw herbs piled and burning like funeral pyres around her. Men and women moved at the edges of the flames some tossing more herbs into the piles, some watching her in utter enthrallment, others ignoring her completely as they went about their base work. Her eyes caught on Nothus as he approached her, a black scaled belt in his hands. Her eyes moved to the big man's scarred face, and narrowed in some semblance of a suspicious glare. Something in her stomach had turned when she'd seen the belt, perhaps not in her conscious state did she know its use, but something under her skin told her to distrust it._

_ "Don't give me that look, princess," he said as he knelt before her, beginning to wrap the scaled object around her waist, "I risked my life to get you out of that hell hole, you should be glad to help me now."_

_ She felt him fasten the belt and then watched him move beyond the ring of burning herbs. It was all she had time to see before she felt the belt tighten around her waist, not uncomfortably so but enough that she could feel it moving against her skin, breathing. The burning, itching in her skin came next, and she couldn't help herself from tearing at her own flesh as the sensation came, even when she felt blood on her fingers the feeling remained torturing her below her skin, almost down to the bone. Pain seized her next, every bone popping, snapping, breaking, moving. Her ribs snapped as she exhaled a pained scream, tears blinked away from pain blinded eyes. They expanded as she inhaled, far past what they should have; her next cry of pain was drown into an agonized roar accompanied by flames. Her hands flew to her scalp; her head was pounding, splitting. Her teeth gnashed as they sharpened to fangs, tearing at her lips and snapping together hard enough to break her jaw only for it to elongate. Even as the feelings ebbed she thrashed against the ground, making the earth beneath her quake, making the flames around sky rocket, her chest heaving with the effort to breathe calmly. Smoke became heavy in the air as the flames roared around her praising her and unknowingly numbing her. Her labored breathing became more and more even as the smoke surrounded her drowning her world into cool darkness._

She woke to the smell of roasting meats as the base began to go about its morning routine. The mouth watering smell was more than a pleasant greeting compared to the herbs she'd left nearly a week before. She stretched, her wings folding and unfolding against her back. Her eyes opened and were met with the sight of a still sleepy camp. She knew Ty Lee wouldn't be up for a few hours yet, preferring to sleep in as late as she could. Her stomach growled displeased at this, knowing her own breakfast would be postponed until the acrobat awoke (Ty Lee being the only one unafraid of being mistaken for breakfast herself and so the only one willing to approach her with any form of food).

In an attempt to ignore her hunger she looked around the camp her eyes moved from tent to tent (willing away the hunger that gnawed at her stomach when her eyes passed over the cooking fires). She found Ty Lee's tent easily, its pink and patchwork shell contrasting with the dark greens and blood reds around it. Zuko's tent was also easy to find, gold trimming the blood red instead of black like the other fire nation tents around it. Lazily she began following people who were up, seeing generals who had once bowed to her seated beside generals she'd come close to killing when they met on the battle field. It was a strange sight for her, former enemies and allies together as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

Another aggravated sigh left her, as her stomach growled its hunger again and she sent a silent prayer to Agni for Ty Lee to wake soon.

-D.-

How was it possible for a regal, powerful beast such as a dragon to be reduced to little more than an overgrown lion-dog? The question ran through his mind on repeat as he watched what should have been his master piece killing creation, all the strength and might of a dragon with the mind and prowess of the fallen princess, groan at the pleasure of having her throat scratched by the young girl before her. His annoyance grew when he heard the girl begin cooing to the beast before her, speaking to the dragon the way a child might speak to their pets.

He felt a growl rise in his throat at the sight, before an idea ran through his head, "smoke her out, and be sure the girl comes too."


	11. Smash And Grab

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Sorry about the wait. One of my dogs died of bone cancer, and it's kind of hard for me to concentrate. (R.I.P. Bruno 6/12/11)

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

She absently remembered the strength endowed on her by Sozin's Comet, and the thought ran through her head that that power was nothing in comparison with the noon day sun on her scales. She wondered what it would have been like that day if she had had this strength. Almost immediately those thoughts left as warm soft hands ran through her mane. No amount of power bestowed by Agni could compare to the warm comfort of those talented hands.

_Words were spit from her mouth with more venom than could be found in a lion-cobra's fangs, "you should have feared me more," without thinking she moved into the familiar deadly movements, but before she could release the heat building in her muscles, looking for an outlet, deceitfully soft hands slammed into her back killing the heat and power before it could be sparked._

She had to pull herself away from the girl petting her as the memory brought flames to her throat, licking at her teeth and begging to escape. Instead she let out a mouth full of smoke, trying to rein in the anger that had risen at the memory. The smoke was thicker than she'd expected, and the anger harder to dissipate. The air was heavier when she inhaled again.

The last thing she registered was the sound of all hell breaking loose as the world turned black around her.

-D.-

The calm morning disappeared, melting into smoke and fire. Shouts and fighting echoed into her ears while smoke clouded her vision. The smell of smoke burned her nose enough to make her gag; its purpose didn't hit her until the confused angry roar echoed over the chaos around her, all other noise seemed to die. Bluebell flames chased smoke through the air, taking its place and surrounding her.

When the air cleared of smoke and fire she found herself staring into gapping jaws.

-D.-

Everyone in camp looked toward the sky as the huge beast rose into the air, its blue scales contrasting harshly with the pink bundle hanging from its jaws.

-D.-

The young acrobat awoke with a groan. Her… everything hurt. She could feel bruises sinking to her bones. Lacerations covered her. Cleaned, stitched and bandaged, as they were, they stung. She sat up slowly, wincing as pain shot through her back. Her eyes were slow to open but as soon as they did surprise and confusion lit her thunder gray orbs.

She was in a cage, large enough for her to stand or lay down in, but only barely; if she tried to lift her hands above her head they would bush the ceiling. The cage was in a large cavern, lit by luminescent stones that ran along the walls and roof of the cave. Beside her cage was another cage, much larger. Large enough to house Appa and still give him room to fly within. She expected to see the dragon within but instead her breath caught in her throat at the sight she did see.

Chains wrapped, like heavy dog chokers, around lean limbs. No longer did pale skin stretch taunt over bone instead now taunt for the regained muscles. Long dark locks hung down glossy and healthy once again. Her breath hitched when her eyes met foggy gold, the image of all too similar clouded gold eyes surrounded by shimmering blue scales flashed through her mind's eye.

"Azula."


	12. Dealings With The Devil

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(P.S. First one to tell me what 'Nothus' means wins… I don't know… They win something! Hint: It's Latin)

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

The young acrobat woke from an uncomfortable sleep, stretching muscles sore from sleep on floor of her cage. If she was honest with herself the cage floor was not the worst she'd slept on, but it was the most miserable. Her eyes moved to her companion. Azula's eyes were still shut, which meant the sun had yet to rise. It surprised her that even in an unresponsive state the fire bender's internal clock worked smooth as ever. Through this she knew exactly how long she'd been there.

Three days. For three days she'd sat beside the bars that adjoined the two cages, as she had done at the asylum. Three days she'd spent with only the fallen princess, an opportunity she would have relished had the golden eyed girl not been in a catatonic state. Her stomach rumbled and a new thought ran through her head. It had been three days since she'd had anything to eat.

"Hungry?" the man's voice brought her out of her thoughts. Before her cage stood a large man in a worn and faded fire nation uniform, "don't worry, you'll be fed once the princess wakes," a smirk crossed his mouth that made her blood freeze as he entered her cage, "we'll have to get you ready for that won't we?"

-D.-

Azula's senses returned in a confused mess. The small always observant part of her mind noted that this meant she was no longer surrounded by smoke. The groggy, yet to recover portion of her mind reminded her that, while no longer surrounded by smoke, she was yet to recover from it. An unstable hand rose to her face to rub away the last of the fog that hung to her eyes, accompanied by the sound of chains.

The full weight of it didn't hit her until her vision cleared and she was met with the sight of rough calluses of her palm. She pulled her hand away from her face and stared at the alien appendage. It had been months since she'd been human, or at least months since she'd been 'conscience' as a human. She ran her hands over her face and through her own hair, reveling in the feeling. The sound and weight of chains stole her attention quickly from rejoicing.

The bindings were wrapped in a strange way around her wrists and ankles. At one end of each chain was a small metal ring through which the rest of the chain was threaded allowing the restraints to be tightened or loosened. Similar to the chokers she'd seen used on lion-dogs.

Wearily she slipped one hand free of its bindings. She knew that Nothus was not one to be thorough in his planning, but he was not a stupid man. He had a reason for chaining her in such a way. The weight around her waist brought the chains purpose to her. He expected her to change.

This answer only brought more questions to her. Why had he removed the smoke if he wanted her to change? How would he get her to do so when she had no idea how she did it in the first place? What was his new plan?

A whimper from nearby caught her attention. Chained to the floor before her was Ty Lee. Nothus stood behind the acrobat, sword in hand.

The snarl left her throat before she could stop it, "Don't touch her," her words were lost in the thunderous roar of an angry dragon.

It was faster then she remembered changing to be and far less painful, perhaps due to no longer being in the grip of drugs. She still felt the crack of bone and tearing of skin but it seemed numbed, distilled by the strength of the anger that flashed through her stomach. She guessed somewhere in the back of her mind she was only half as angry as the flames that rose in her throat told her she was. It was only by Agni's grace she kept enough control not to spit those flames at the man before her. Restraint hinging on the fact he stood too close to Ty for her to kill him and not hurt her.

Restraints that had once been loose were now taut and dug beneath her scales. Her still restrained fore talons were forced to her chest, and she was forced upright. Her free claws caught on the bars of the cage that separated her from them.

"Calm, beast, you wouldn't want my hand to slip, would you?" his rough voice sounded, to her ears, like rat-viper's hiss and she paid him no heed only growling back. The flash of pain through the terror in gray eyes and the whimper around the gag, that kept the acrobat from crying out too loudly, was not as ignorable as Nothus' words.

Reluctantly she reined in her anger. Her claws flexed and left the bars before her and smoke escaped her mouth. More fire rolled in her stomach as she saw the corseted smirk across Nothus' scared mouth when he saw her comply.

"I had wondered what they could have been doing to have you failing you missions so often. What could have a half crazed monster running for the hills?" he eyed the chained and kneeling girl with a look that brought a growl to the dragon's throat the second she saw it, "she's got quiet the chest for her age doesn't she?"

Her teeth snapped inches from metal bars and her tail lashed the back wall of the cave that her cage had been built into.

"As entertaining as your temper is, I'm here to discuss a proposition with you," he, almost absent mindedly dug his sword deeper into Ty lee's throat until the acrobat cried out again and Azula's temper was smothered once more by the acrobat's pain, "I could have her killed now, if she's too much of a distraction for you."

Her body screamed to lash out once more, something she barely managed to restrain herself from doing, in place of leaping at the bars again she let a low rolling growl slip past her fangs accompanied by flames that dissipated into smoke as they left her mouth.

His smirk returned, "Good, now that I have your attention…"


	13. Why Do You Care or Run

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In answer to Rioshix's review. Yes, this will be TyZula. I'm ashamed to say I doubt my writing skills too much to have added anything more than dropping a few hints in the beginning because I didn't think I'd be able fit 'drugged out of her mind' and well anything resembling romance.

(Ps. I'm sorry for the wait fucking AADHD)

On With the Show!

Disclaimer: …

Once more the young royal is dressed in fitted armor, though not near as fine as the sleek, smooth plates that once adorned her. Around her waist the black scaled belt was still fastened. It was strange to think the girl before her had grown since her stint in the asylum, after all malnutrition coupled with insufficient exercise for a year should have left her relatively unchanged. Now the fire bender stood a good head taller than Ty Lee. She guessed it had something to do with the newly acquired powers the girl had.

While Azula had gained in muscle and height the change was offset by how little the girls face had changed, only a touch thinner, but over all unchanged. Written across the unchanged face was the cool, deadly look that the princess adopted when thinking through war strategies. Something in the set of Azula's shoulders as she walks from the cave that tells the young acrobat the deal struck was far from equal. Even with that knowledge it didn't stop the contortionist from knocking the other girl to the ground in a hug that hurt them both.

"Ty," her name was a low, half relieved whisper, reminding her of the purr that escaped the princess as a dragon. Strong arms wrapped around her returning the embrace. Something was off about it though. Not like the friendly, childhood hugs they'd had, or those they'd shared after she rejoined the princess, were Azula returned them only out of polite half reward for the acrobat's service to her. This was something else. There was an almost protectiveness to the returned embrace, and in equal parts on both sides there was a sort of desperateness, nether willing to let go.

"Let's go, princess, you have a job to do before you have your fun," the man, who'd walked out behind Azula, growled the words. The dragon glared up at him, but nodded, and stood dragging Ty Lee to her feet with her.

The fire bender disentangled herself from the young acrobat and met the girl's gaze, before speaking in a low voice so no one else would hear, "if anything happens, run."

-D.-

_"Why do you care?" _The words hung in the back of her head, the echo of her father's voice spitting them in disgust. Her brow furrowed at the phantom question, why did she care? She should have felt no different towards Ty Lee then any of the others that were now tracking the rebel army, if anything she should have wanted to do away with the acrobat even more, since it was the pink loving girl's fault she'd broken in the first place. The thought crossed her mind that she should have been more than happy to slaughter the group for Nothus, before she ripped his throat out as well of course. As soon as the thought came a clam voice spoke to her barely a whisper, _but you'd have to kill her too…_

Her stomach made an uneasy flip at that. Again her father's words echoed into her ears, '_why do you care?'_ the unbidden memory rising with it.

_"Why do you care so much about this foolish girl?" her father's disgust was evident, "she betrayed you. She betrayed her country. She should be rotting in that cell. No… She should have been hanged, why go to such lengths for such a rat?"_

_ She didn't look at her father as he spoke, her eyes staying trained on the letter to the prison warden she was writing._

_ She could almost feel the Fire Lord fuming behind her, "that girl was worse than the knife wielding traitor. At least that bitch had a reason as foolish as it was. What was that silly acrobat's, hm? Did she even bother to give one?"_

_ "I was angry, father, my control slipped. Ty didn't want me to do anything rash," she growled back, a rare occurrence that servants knew ended with blood to clean up from one of them._

_ "She attacked you. She took you down," her teeth bared at the reminder, "for nothing, they both deserve to die, yet you sit here and write that she is to be unharmed, taken care of even!"_

_ "She didn't want me to kill Mai, didn't want me to become a real monster," the words were curt, more of an annoyed snap, she'd never intended to tell anyone, let alone her father what Ty Lee had told her as answer._

_ Her glare was met by one more deadly than any fatal sparks he could have thrown, fiercer then the hiss of a fire whip cleaving her back in two. The knowing spark that flashed in his eyes, made her regret answering him all the more, "You think she cares? Your own mother didn't care; you were already a monster to her, why should that empty headed girl care?"_

_ She didn't mean for the words to be a snarl, but they were far more viscous than intended, "she's not empty headed," a very wrong step she realized only seconds after the words had left her mouth, a yearling wolflion challenging its alpha. She watched the silent anger flashing across her father's face. _

_ "Why do you care?"_

So wrapped in the memory was she that the pink blur launching itself at her went unnoticed until she was thrown to the ground, strong arms wrapped around her neck.

Her arms didn't drop as they should have to catch her as she fell, instead they held onto the body pressed into hers, "Ty…"

Nothus's rough voice interrupted what would have been a moment of relief, "Let's go, princess, you have a job to do before you have your fun."

She leveled a glare at the scared ice eyes, but the flicker of his hand moving to signal hidden assassins he'd told her were all around the camp. Though she didn't believe a word of it, erring on the side of caution seemed best. A nod of acknowledgement as she rose to her feet, dragging Ty with her without trouble, brought the conceited smirk to his face and she had to restrain herself from killing him where he stood.

Grudgingly she pulled away from the acrobat, and met the girl's gaze. She didn't trust Nothus to keep his promise that the aura reader would be taken care of so long as she fought for him; in fact she was more than sure he wouldn't. In a low growl, she whispered to the girl, "If anything happens, run."

"_Why do you care?"_

'_I don't know…'_


	14. Cliff Hanger'

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43 reviews! Hole mother-a! Thank you all!

On with the show!

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The canyon was double her length, as a dragon, in depth and close to five times as wide. The enormous ravine stretched to the ocean at one end and up to the Serpent's Pass at the other, there would be no way the four nation's army could get to the rebel camp without crossing it. A natural trap. An easily seen trap, but an unavoidable one to reach a goal, if they took the time to go around it, it could take months to get to the rebel strong hold, and by then it would have moved again.

Of course, neither her brother, nor the man beside her were particularly patient. How Nothus had kept up running for so long she didn't know, but then again his army was only a fraction of the force following him.

"Keep them there 'til I give you the signal," Nothus's low bark. She nodded and eyed the cannon again, catching sight of people moving along the walls packing them with blasting powder. She would head off the coming forces, at least slow them down and if necessary push them back. Once Nothus' forces were safely out of the cannon, she would serve as spark and blow the whole place into oblivion. If that didn't wipe out whatever forces were unlucky enough to end up on the cannon floor it would slow them enough for Nothus' army to take out any survivors.

What he planed after that he had yet to divulge to her, or he had yet to think that far. She suspected the later.

The low groan of a komodo rhino behind her pulled her from her observations. She turned and saw ten cavalry men and one unmanned mount gathered to accompany her down the cliff side, before retreating as quickly as possible back up. Her eyes flickered back to the canyon and saw the shadows of the advancing forces coming close to half way across the floor of the ravine. She turned back and mounted the rhino presented to her having to ride down, only to change when signaled to spark the blasting powder.

"Do not fail me this time, or I will personally make sure the acrobat doesn't survive the night," Nothus growled beside her, dark eyes matching her own glare.

"Do so and you will share the same fate," she growled back, feeling the belt around her waist twist as anger coursed through her veins, even despite the plate steel and fabric separating her skin from hard scale. She took a low breath to calm herself, remembering what he had told her about the belt only moments ago is the cave.

"_It's stupidly simple to control. It's the same as bending; you have to want to bring forth the change the same way you have to want to bring on the flame. Controlling and focusing your chi into the belt or becoming angry enough to stir the chi naturally flowing there is all it takes. Changing back is the same, you have to want to turn back your body will do the rest."_

The belt stilled as she took another low breath and spurred the rhino down the cliff face.

-D.-

"Azula," her name was spat from her brother's mouth hostility and suspicion lining each syllable.

"Hello, Zuzu."


	15. Ravine Rumble

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So… Yeh… I love y'all! 53 reviews! O.o I really never thought this would be that good to be honest, but holy shit. Thank you all!

On with the show!

Disclaimer: …

"Of course, you'd be behind this," the icy blue eyes of the water bender turned even colder as they regarded her. The entire gaang had taken up defensive stances, as had the soldiers behind them, despite only one girl standing in their way.

Her own glare matched those directed at her. She felt the painful twist of the belt tightening around her waist and was barely able to keep from changing. She put a hand to the steely scales, reminding herself to be calm, "no, the moron you're looking for is standing up at the edge of the cliff over there," she nodded to where Nothus was, taking the moment to scan the cannon walls as well, gauging the amount of time she would have by how many flickering shadows she caught sight of, "his name is Nothus, and I would much appreciate being rid of him, so you'll all have to keep quiet and listen to me or else be slaughtered."

The water bender's brother drew his sword, already ready to attack, "you're bluffing."

"You're right… Slaughter is better used for cattle, exterminated is a better term for rats," she felt there glares worsen, defensive stances shifting to prepare attacks. She raised her hands, "I'm not here to fight you, despite what that idiot sent me here to do."

"It's not like you to serve some low life rebel leader," Mai said, stepping forward knives in hand.

"Let's say he has something of value to me," she replied, glaring up at the man standing far above them, "the only thing keeping me from tearing you all to pieces," the statement became even truer as it left her lips. Ty Lee really had been the only reason she hadn't killed them all the on her first missions. Ty Lee was also the only reason she wasn't about to kill them now, the thought of what the acrobat would think of her if she did made her stomach twist painfully, "he's ordered me to keep you occupied 'til he gets all his men out of the canyon and then I'm to blow the whole thing up."

Shock replaced hate in their eyes if only for a moment. Before suspicion took its place and Zuko spoke, "why should we believe you?"

"Because the earth bender does. She's been observing the men packing the walls with explosives since I've arrived here," the dragon replied, eyes flicking to the earth bender who'd been unusually quiet during the exchange so far, "how many are left?"

The glare returned to the earth bender's face, though more out of being caught trying to decipher what the men had been doing without being noticed then actual anger, "a little over a dozen, fifteen give or take."

"That gives me about five minutes then. You'll need to be ready for the explosion, I won't be able to redirect all of it," she rolled her shoulders, feeling the uncomfortable, painful itch that went straight to her bones and the unbearable heat that began boiling her blood in her veins. She knew from the confused back steps that the group before her took that they could feel the heat pouring from her, "He's going to have his men rush in afterwards to attack any survivors he won't expect you to be able to fight back."

"Why are you telling us all this? Would have thought you'd want us all dead," the water bender's brother said, relaxing only slightly.

Mai snorted, "She probably does. What is it that's so important that you'd put aside getting our blood on your hands?"

"Actually I really couldn't care less about killing you at the moment, 'I love Ty, more then I hate you'," the princess replied honestly for once in her life, as the low bellow of a horn made to sound like a mooselion echoed from the edge of the canyon wall, "that would be my signal, on guard," She could feel cloth and steel shredding with her skin as bone and muscle out grew their confines, shedding soft human skin for cobalt scale. Surprise and fear mixed in the eyes watching her, even Mai's impassive gaze widened. She waited only a moment for them to regain their bearing, long enough for their senses to return but not so long as to seem hesitant to the man watching them, before beating her huge wings and lifting off the ground, flames already begging to be free of her mouth.

The blue white blaze escaped her jaws to attack the canyon walls setting off the explosives. Just as she'd thought, her power in bending increased to a state of near unconsciousness, without being bidden most of the heat and flames resulting with the explosion was directed away from what would become a battle ground. The earth benders at the base took the brunt of what she couldn't redirect. Only by luck was the smoke thick enough to keep Nothus from seeing her actions.

She landed at a ledge overlooking the canyon the smoke too thick for her to see where the fighting would begin, until surprised shouts from both sides echoed into her ears which perked and scanned for specific voices before she dove into the ensuing chaos.

-D.-

The camp was near silent after Azula had gone, most of the others following her and the man with her. Two guards stayed by her sides as she wandered the near abandon camp. One a middle age woman who she guessed was only there because of her husband and the other a burly man, shorter then she was but thick necked and heavy. She could easily take them, but had been advised against it, having been warned about others, sentries guarding her and the camp that had orders to kill her without a second thought if she did something wrong. Not a situation she'd never been in, and certainly not one she couldn't get out of, but the desperateness in Azula's short embrace and the look in the fire bender's eye as she told her to run kept her from leaving.

The camp's silence was making her stir crazy, and though she wasn't adverse to a one-sided conversation with her captors the pair would shake her off with more than hostile glares that rivaled any that others had given her when she began to talk. So silence reined. Even the bellow of a moose lion hunting horn was a welcome sound over that of the drone of silence. The resounding BA-DA-BOOM! of explosives going off and the sudden dust that rushed out and suffocated everything in a thick cloud echoed out shortly after, causing shouts of surprise and panic from the unsuspecting half deserted camp.

_If anything happens, run._ The acrobat took off through the dirt clogged air. Running as hard as she could towards the source of the explosion where she was more than sure Azula was.

-D.-

As a dog trainer or politician will tell you, it is important not to hold a leash too short and choke off any resistance, but also important not to give full rein. It is important to give just enough slack that you are still in power but neither tyrant nor equal. Nothus was neither a dog trainer nor politician and his miscalculation in power was now costing him severely. _It would have been easier to simply kill the girl and keep the beast drugged_ he thought bitterly as he fought through the chaos.

Chaos, there was no more fitting term. The four nation's army had turned in on itself as had his own men; it was a free for all and at the center of it, tearing down men of both sides, was the cerulean beast he'd created. _Insolent brat_ he thought dodging a stream of blue flames and ending up against one of the cliff faces. _You must want that idiot girl to die._

-D.-

There were very few things that exhausted the acrobat, running full sprint to an indefinite location being one of those things. Her body was far from its peak performance state, three days with no food, little water and even less sleep made her muscles groin and pinch with effort, but she continue to run until she was forced to stop by the edge of the steep cliff face. The cliff made up one side of a massive ravine, in the middle of which a mess that could hardly be called a battle, but couldn't be called a riot had broken out. In the midst of the fray was Azula, in all her serpentine glory, turning deep blue scales purple as she tore at her attackers.

"Azula," the word came out barely a whisper, but the surprised scream that followed as the ground beneath her feet, already weakened by the previous explosions, gave and sent her falling into the canyon.

-D.-

Were it not for the man who'd managed to jump onto her muzzle and caused her to toss her head to the side to throw him off she wouldn't have seen the acrobat falling. The normally agile girl couldn't seem to get her bearings as she fell, not that it would have mattered, the drop was far too deep to be landed without being fatal. _Damn it, Ty Lee, when I told you to run the implication was AWAY FROM DANGER NOT TOWARDS IT_, her claws dug into the ground as she turned and bolted to the falling girl.

Momentum unchecked, the wall rushed to meet her just as quickly.

-D.-

The scream had surprised him, and when he looked up his eyes caught on the falling pink blur. _What?_ His eyes were dragged back down as the ground shook. The sword edge sharp talon of a dragon met his gaze.

-D.-

The fight fizzled out quickly, the rebel small army taken out easily after the internal squabbles among both sides were resolved, nearly half the rebel force taken out by internal combat alone. The gaang found the pair at the out skirts of the battle ground. Ty Lee, having narrowly escaped her own death thanks to Azula, sat with the dragon's head in her lap, stoking the blood matted hair from the other girls face. Azula lay unconscious and naked in Ty's lap, she'd turned back shortly after her collision with the wall. Her back and head were both covered in blood left from crashing and scraping the wall as she'd veered just enough to avoid ramming head on into the wall, instead receiving what could barely be called a 'glancing blow' that had none the less left her unresponsive.

-D.-

When she awoke, she was surprised to find she wasn't in as much pain as she would have expected after running head long into a wall, a dull soreness was the worst of her pains but nothing near the mind numbing pain she'd expected. She looked around her body begging her for a few hours more rest until she saw where she was and was jolted fully awake. She found herself in a Fire Navy ship, in the infirmary were the royal family and officers were treated when on board. Almost immediately she expected the weight of chains to be around her but was surprised to find she could move freely.

Carefully she left her bed, and found as she looked in the full length mirror on one wall of the room she was dressed, as all infirmary patients, in loose white pants and shirt but lacking the heavy scale belt, which had been lain across a dresser also in the small room. A frown crossed her face as she looked over the well broken in belt. While she held contempt for it, as the thing and its powers had been forced on her, she could not deny that the power it offered was something she'd enjoyed when she'd been lucid enough to appreciate it, minus of course the transition between human and beast. Unbidden her hands fastened the belt around her waist, and she continued towards her door.

When she tried the handle she'd expected it to have been locked, but again found no such precaution to keep her there. Cautiously she left the infirmary room and made her way out into the halls and above deck.

Her ears were immediately greeted by, "Azula!" and she barely managed to brace herself in time for the bone crushing hug.

-D. -

So… That's the end! Hope y'all enjoyed reading. I'm thinking about a sequel but that depends on if my editors want to keep reading about this. Any questions? Feel free to leave them in a review, I'll add a chapter/page of Q/A to this to answer anything y'all want to ask. Thanks for reading!


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